Spirit of Competition Fueling Louisville RB Maurice Turner

The running back for the Cardinals has been surrounded by great backs during his time in college, and has been using that competition as fuel to elevate himself.

U of L's Maurice Turner (4) ran against Duke during their game at the L&N Stadium in Louisville, Ky. on Oct. 28, 2023. / Sam Upshaw Jr./Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - While Jeff Brohm has been known for his high-flying passing offenses during his time as a head coach, in his first year as the head coach of his alma mater, the opposite was true. The Louisville football program had two elite running backs to lean on Jawhar Jordan and Isaac Guerendo during the 2023 season, helping the Cardinals finish with one of the top rushing attacks in the FBS.

Now, both Jordan and Guerendo now in the NFL, fighting for spots on the 53-man rosters for the Houston Texans and San Francisco 49ers, respectively. With those two now in the league, it has paved the way for Maurice Turner to take on the biggest role - potentially a starter's role - that he's ever had at the college level.

Over the course of the offseason, Louisville's coaching staff has been impressed with how Turner has progressed ahead of the 2024 season.

"It's been good," running backs coach Chris Barclay said. "He had two really good players to learn from last year in Jawhar Jordan and Isaac Guerendo, both have moved on to the NFL. Those guys were close, and they challenged him a lot and a lot of ways, and I've challenged him in the offseason."

Ever since Turner arrived on campus, he has been in the thick of stout competition. As a true freshman, he entered the 2022 fifth on the running back depth chart behind Jalen Mitchell, Trevion Cooley, Tiyon Evans and Jordan. But due to a rash of injuries in the running back room, he wound up finishing as the backup to Jordan for the Fenway Bowl. He rushed for 314 yards that season, with 160 of those yards coming vs. Cincinnati in the Fenway Bowl and caught 12 passes for 72 yards.

Last offseason, Turner was bumped back down to third on the depth chart after Guerendo joined the program from Wisconsin. He production took a bit of a step back, rushing for 284 yards and logging 11 receptions for 87 yards.

Following the end of the 2023 season, one where Louisville went 10-4 under Brohm's first year and made an appearance in the ACC Championship Game, the Cardinals even still continued to bolster the running back room. They brought over Donald Chaney Jr. from Miami, and briefly had Toledo transfer Peny Boone, who was a 1,400-yard rusher last season - although he re-entered the portal and is now at UCF.

Even with all that competition surrounding him, Turner didn't flinch. He stayed the course and embraced the competition, using it as fuel instead of an excuse to go somewhere else where there could be an easier avenue to playing time.

"There's competition everywhere, you just got to stay on the grind. We know what we're capable of," he said Monday.

Instead viewing guys like Jordan and Guerendo as merely competition on the depth chart, he embraced them, and became a sponge of knowledge to the much older backs. Because of that, he's still very good friends with the now-NFL rushers, even to the point where they still and help Turner out whenever they can despite working on their own professional careers.

"We still stay in touch," Turner said. "They give me ideas and help me out with what to do in the backfield, and how to take care of my body. The training room comes with it. In the offseason. you got to stay healthy so you'll be able to play during the season."

Even now, Turner still has taken on the "sponge of knowledge" mindset, and continued to embrace the competition at his position group. While he and Chaney are very much fighting for starter's reps, the two not only work hand-in-hand to improve each other, they've made a cognizant effort to try and help out the three younger backs in the room.

"He's just a kid that is always trying to find ways to improve," Barclay said. "He's always asking questions, he and Don stayed after our position meeting yesterday and worked with one of the young guys. He's invested, and he's always trying to find ways to make himself more complete. Those types of kids, it's easy to coach those guys. They're not itinerary guys. They want to do more, they want to know why, and they want to do all the little things. Just to see his game continue to evolve, I'm excited about where he's headed."

That spirit of competition has proved to benefit Turner in the long run as well. During spring ball and in the early goings of fall camp, the all-purpose back has arguably been one of the most consistent players at the position. That's not just as a rusher, either. Barclay noted that Turner has made significant strides in pass protections, saying that his "hand placement is better, he's much more calm and poised before contact."

Of course, while Turner could be in for a major 2024 season, Barclay says that he still wants to see him take another step. Specifically, he wants Turner to do a better job in the explosive play department - something that Jordan and Guerendo did with regularity in 2023.

"One of the things I told him, that we need to see from him that I thought Isaac and Jaws did a really good job of last year, is he needs more explosive plays," Barclay said. "We need more big plays - 50-plus yard plays. The 40-yard play, that's fine, but we need to be able to take momentum, and take the air out of the stadium on the road, and really ignite the crowd at home. Those big plays are what's gonna get it done."

Turner has seemingly taken this challenge in stride. In fact, he seems confident that he can meet Barclay's challenge, mainly because he holds his running backs coach in such a high regard.

"With the coach we have," he said. We've got a top-five running back coach in the country. He's gonna get out here, do what do do, coach us up, and help us do what we did last year."

(Photo of Maurice Turner: Sam Upshaw Jr. - Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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